A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 541 The Wheat is Ripe
After the Dragon Boat Festival, the Grain in Ear season will arrive in the blink of an eye.

"Grain in Ear, the wheat with awns should be harvested quickly, and the millet with awns should be planted quickly. The busy season of harvesting and planting has arrived."

Outside Lingqiu City, in the fields along the Tang River.

The wheat planted by the people of Lingqiu last autumn is now a golden expanse, with the wind rustling through the wheat fields, bringing joy to everyone.

It's a pity that we didn't plant enough wheat last year.

Otherwise, the 100,000 mu of land along the Tang River alone could yield a great harvest of wheat.

After Li Yi led his army into Lingqiu this year, he established military, official, and commercial settlements there and organized the people to sow buckwheat, millet, and other crops in the spring. The crops are growing well and are lush and green, but it will still be two or three months before they are harvested.

Looking at the golden wheat, Qin Wutong, the governor of Hengzhou, said, "Minister, the wheat in Hebei is ripe now. The war here is not progressing, and the soldiers all want to go home to harvest wheat, plant beans and millet."

Yizhou Prefect Li Xuantong echoed, "Yes, now the military farms in Weizhou are finished, and there's no fighting for the time being, so everyone is idle. But at home, we're busy with both harvesting and planting, and everyone's worried that we won't be able to keep up."

Currently, 20,000 Dingzhou troops are stationed in Weizhou, mostly concentrated at Pingxing Pass.

While the flames of war raged in Xindai, this place remained peaceful and serene.

"Harvesting wheat is important, but planting beans cannot be delayed even for a day. There is a saying that if you plant a night later, the stalks will be two fingers shorter; if you plant a day later, the stalks will be short and the beans will be flat."

"After the Grain in Ear season, planting should not be forced."

The farming season is very important, because food is the most important thing for people.

Especially from last winter to this summer, Hebei has been suffering from famine, and the people are looking forward to the summer grain harvest. Now that the wheat is ripe, the soldiers also want to go home to harvest the wheat, as this is related to their food rations for the next six months.

The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were already considered middle class, mostly belonging to the small landlord and self-cultivating farmer class, and their lives were relatively good. However, since the country had just been founded, wars and disasters were still frequent, and no one dared to miss a season of wheat.

Li Yi walked through the fields.

The wheat ears were quite heavy, but unfortunately, not much was planted last year, and the harvest was not enough to supply the more than 20,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 garrison troops in Weizhou.

Wang Xingmin, the inspector of Weizhou, couldn't help but ask, "Has the imperial court not issued any orders yet? Should we send troops to Yanmen City or not?"

Did the Crown Prince not give any instructions at all?

Should we return to Hebei to harvest wheat, or send troops to Yanmen Pass?
Li Yi smiled bitterly to himself, wondering how he had ended up facing such a choice.

But for him and the 20,000 soldiers of Dingzhou, since the imperial court and the military commander of Hedong Road had not issued any orders, their best option was indeed to go home and harvest wheat.

Instead of dealing with rats like this every day, I should go home and harvest the wheat first.

"Even you governors are calling for yourselves to go home and harvest the wheat. It seems the soldiers are indeed eager to return home."

Faced with Jieli's 200,000-strong army, the 20,000 soldiers of Dingzhou were unwilling to rush in recklessly, especially now that there was no movement from any other side.

If the Crown Prince mobilizes all forces to rescue Yanmen, then the soldiers of Dingzhou will certainly not back down.

But there are no orders now, so why not go home and harvest the wheat?

Of the 20,000 troops in Dingzhou, many were actually central government troops stationed in Hebei. Originally, from Xingming and Zhao to Hengyi and Dingzhou, a total of five third-rank generals were dispatched, each leading 3,000 men to be stationed in key locations.

Liu Jun and Xue Zhong's six thousand men suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the rebels, but Qin Wutong, Wang Xingmin, and Li Xuantong's nine thousand men, under Li Yi's command, achieved merit without suffering any losses.

Li Yi currently commands 20,000 troops stationed in Weizhou, of which 10,000 are central army soldiers and the remaining 10,000 are soldiers drawn from the newly formed 24 military prefectures under the Ding Prefecture.

The central army mainly consisted of soldiers from Guanzhong Prefecture, who were drawn from within the pass to garrison Hebei. Originally, this was a temporary garrison, and they were to be withdrawn once the situation in Hebei stabilized. However, due to the Gao Kaidao rebellion and the Turkic invasion, the garrison was delayed indefinitely.

These 10,000 soldiers from Guanzhong also wanted to go home to harvest wheat, but the distance was too great for them to do so for the time being.

However, the soldiers of the Hebei Military Prefecture could go home to harvest wheat.

"I think it would be better to bring 10,000 Dingzhou soldiers back to Hebei, harvest the wheat, and plant the beans and millet. It won't take more than a month, and we can come back again."

"At that time, we can also transport grain over, so it won't cause any delay."

Li Yi was in a bad mood. From the words of these senior generals, he could sense the confusion among the soldiers in Dingzhou.

Liu Shirang of Yanmen City has been fighting alone for over a hundred days.

Even though their 20,000 Dingzhou troops were only 240 li apart, they hadn't moved an inch forward in over a month.

Recently, Su Dingfang, Liu Heita, and Li Cunxiao led a few generals to attack, but they only dealt with small groups of Turkic soldiers who were plundering the countryside. They didn't even come within twenty miles of Fanzhi City.

The generals have lost their fighting spirit.

Li Yi himself is the same; the first thing he does every morning is ask the court and the crown prince if there are any orders.

He longed to send troops to Yanmen Pass.
But reason told him that sending his 20,000 men to the Yanmen battlefield would not help the overall situation and might even make it worse.
If he were Jieli, he would be hoping that Jieli would leave the natural barrier of Pingxing Pass and his base in Weizhou as soon as possible, and go to the Yanmen Plain for a decisive battle.

Of the 200,000 Turkic troops, 20,000 would be nothing more than cannon fodder.

"Is there no news from Yunzhou either?"

Wang Junkuo has been leading troops into the Sanggan Valley for some time now, and Li Daoxuan has followed him. The Youzhou army has also mobilized nearly 20,000 troops.
But nothing happened.

Li Yi hoped that Wang Junkuo's Youzhou army could cause some trouble in the Datong Basin, so that Jieli Khan or Yuan Junzhang could transfer some troops back to defend the area.

The pressure on Yanmen City will be reduced.

If Taiyuan, Lishi, and other places can also send troops, then he will naturally send troops to respond immediately.

Even if they don't directly march to Yanmen City to join forces, at least if all forces march out together and converge towards Yanmen, it will put a lot of pressure on Jieli.

“We haven’t received any messages from Yunzhong,” Ma Zhou replied.

"Send a few more cavalry units out of Zhigu Pass to search for the Youzhou army in the Sanggan River Valley, Baideng River Valley, and Yanmen River Valley. I need to know their location and progress."

Li Yi felt that going back to Hebei to harvest wheat now was too passive; if there were to be a war, how could they be brought back immediately?

"We can't wait any longer. Liu Shirang at Yanmen won't be able to hold out for much longer," Li Yi sighed.

Although the Turks were nomadic tribes and not skilled in siege warfare, given time, they could also capture artisans to build siege weapons, fill moats, and dig tunnels.

If the imperial court does not send troops to rescue Yanmen City and allows Jieli to continue besieging it, Yanmen will fall sooner or later.

If Yanmen falls, the next target will be Xinzhou and then Taiyuan, and Pingxing Pass will also be a target for the Turks.

"Is there still no movement from Sijie Awen in Fanzhi City?" "Yes, recently, several groups of Sijie tribe members who went out to plunder have been attacked by Generals Liu, Su, and Li, so they have reduced their plundering activities. They rarely come to the east of Fanzhi County anymore, and the number of Sijie tribe members in Fanzhi City has also increased," Yun Shiduan told Li Yi.

"It seems that Sijie Awen is guarding against our attack on Fanzhi City. But is he really willing to abandon his son? I heard from the prisoners that Wusui is his legitimate son, and his favorite son, who is known as the young clan leader."

“Send another prisoner of Sijie back and tell Awen that I want to exchange Wusui for Fanzhi County, plus Wusui and other gold.”

Upon hearing this, the generals were all invigorated.

"Is Sikong about to send troops to Yanmen?"

"Well, although the court and the crown prince have not given any orders, we can't just sit and wait like this any longer."

First, capture Fanzhi City, then advance 120 li towards Yanmen.

"But what if we venture deep into enemy territory alone, and Fanzhi is just a small town? What if we are also besieged by Jieli?"

Li Yi smiled slightly.

"Although Fanzhi City is not large and has no strategic advantages, if Jieli divides his forces to attack, we can also divide our forces, which will alleviate the siege of Yanmen."

As for whether they can hold Fanshi...

If Liu Shirang could hold Yanmen Pass for over a hundred days, Li Yi should be able to hold it for a hundred days as well, especially since he also has the Youzhou army led by Li Daoxuan and Wang Junkuo to the north.

If necessary, Li Yi could also mobilize another 20,000 to 30,000 people from Hebei.

Moreover, he did not believe that the imperial court would really turn a blind eye to the situation in Daibei.

He led the Dingzhou troops to attack Fanshi, and Li Daoxuan led the Youzhou army to attack Yunzhong. Li Jiancheng couldn't just pretend to be dead, could he?

Fanzhi City is 120 li away from Pingxingzhai, located on the banks of the Hutuo River, surrounded by mountains, hence the name Fanzhi.

Originally, Fanzhi County was not located on the banks of the Hutuo River, but on the banks of the Hun River in Ying County to the north. Later, it was moved to the banks of the Hutuo River.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, it belonged to the State of Jin; during the Warring States Period, it belonged to the State of Zhao; during the Western Han Dynasty, it was established as Lucheng County, and later as Huoren County.
During the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Fanzhi Prefecture was established in Fanzhi County.

During the Kaihuang era of the Sui Dynasty, Fanzhi was established in the former seat of Huoren County.

Li Yi circled the map with his finger.
It was officially announced that "Fanzhi County is now under the jurisdiction of Weizhou".

Fanshi is located at the foot of the mountains and the source of the river. In times of peace, it was a land of plenty, and it was also located on a major transportation route, with many merchants and goods coming and going. It was a truly wonderful place.

Wang Xingmin smiled as he watched Li Yi expand the territory on the map, saying, "Thank you, Minister, for adding another county to my Weizhou."

"Have the brothers get ready, we're going to Fanzhi to harvest wheat!" Li Yi said.

In Fanzhi County,
Sijie Awen was throwing a tantrum, and several groups of soldiers who had gone out to gather fodder were attacked by the Tang army.

"Not a single one escaped?"

"The Tang cavalry arrived too quickly and surrounded us from all sides. We are outnumbered."

Awen had no interest in listening to these explanations. He looked at the sheepskin map and saw that the several hundred-man squads that had been ambushed were all within twenty miles east of Fanzhi County.

Normally, during this period, Tang cavalry attacks would not approach within twenty miles of Fanzhi City.

This situation was considered a tacit understanding by the Thought Department.
As a result, the Tang people, disregarding martial ethics, suddenly crossed that tacitly agreed-upon line and annihilated several of their hundred-man squads in one fell swoop.

"Report!"

A knight from the Sijie tribe rushed into the county government office, shouting, "Jielifa, Tang cavalry, Tang cavalry have reached outside the city!"

"How many have come?"

"There must be several thousand riders."

Sijie Awen hurried to the city wall.

Standing atop the city wall, one could indeed see thousands of Tang soldiers below, their red flags waving and their armor gleaming.

"what are they doing?"

The Tang army was seen working busily just a hundred paces from the city.

"Jielifa, those damned Tang cavalry are building a mound of heads on our Sijie tribe's warriors."

Jingguan

The Sijie tribe is no stranger to this practice; on the battlefield, they would pile up enemy heads with layers of soil to show off their martial prowess.

“These Tang people are going too far! Jielifa, please allow us to leave the city and kill them all.”

Awen's face was ashen, but he remained silent.

He sized up the Tang cavalry that had suddenly appeared.
Tang Jun's actions are becoming increasingly strange.

A Tang general rode up to the city walls and shouted, "Listen up, old man Sijie Awen on the city walls! Don't think you can hide like a coward just because you're holed up in Fanzhi City!"
I am Liu Heita, a general under Li Sikong. I have come here on his orders to deliver a message.

Tomorrow, Sikong will bring the young chieftain of the Wusui clan here to exchange with you, old man Awen. In exchange for the Wusui, you will receive Fanzhi City, plus two hundred catties of gold equal to the weight of the Wusui.

finished,

Liu Heita ignored them, turned around and left. With a whoosh, Su Dingfang and Li Cunxiao also led their cavalry away.

Three thousand Tang cavalrymen rolled away.

Only three mounds of human heads, made up of five hundred heads of the Sijie tribe, remained.

And there was news that Li Yi would use black fragments to exchange for Fancheng and two hundred catties of gold the next day.

Awen stood atop the city wall, his brows furrowed into deep lines.

A tribal general behind him muttered, "Our young chieftain clearly weighs 250 jin."

"The Tang people only asked for two hundred catties of gold, so didn't we still make a profit?"

Awen turned her head, her eyes sharp, startling the two into silence. Awen thought of her youngest son, her heart bleeding. Had her son already lost fifty pounds during his captivity?

(End of this chapter)